The University was first established in Bologna in 1088, as a way of preparing people for scholarly disciplines (the University of Bologna specialized in law). Whereas the trivium (grammar, rhetoric and logic) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy) had been taught in church schools or monastic schools for the most part, the new university was free from religious or specific governmental or monarchical ties, and although theology was taught, it was one of many subjects available.

Soon after the founding of the University of Bologna, other schools began to be formed: the University of Paris in 1150 A.D., now called the Sorbonne or Paris IV; the University of Oxford in 1157 A.D.; the University of Palencia in 1208 A.D.; the University of Cambridge in 1209 A.D.; the University of Salamanca in 1218 A.D.; the University of Montpellier in 1220 A.D.; the University of Padua in 1222 A.D.; the University of Naples Federico II in 1224 A.D.; and the University of Toulouse in 1229 A.D.

The University of Paris was the first founded from a cathedral school, although the earliest universities were outgrowths from cathedral schools; later, kings and governmental authorities would found universities as well. The papal bull of 1223 granted universities the authority to regulate themselves, freeing them of the “town and gown” conflict between the citizens of the town, its authorities, and the students, and also from the authority of local bishops, making universities a self-governing, autonomous organization. Once this freedom had been granted, universities gained the ability to license their graduates to teach, and the universities began to develop into centers of learning, with a particular emphasis on legal and scientific studies.